Gabi Fresh: “Modelling underwear as a plus-sized woman goes against everything society has taught us but it's so empowering!”

Gabi Fresh AKA Gabrielle Gregg is a fierce female and unapologetically proud and self-proclaimed ‘plus-sized’ woman. With her blog and across her rousing social media rallying calls for women she serves the sass up on toast, making for a new fresh breeze of empowerment. Gabi has taken this spirit into her latest underwear collaboration with and as we found out, her modelling underwear is not only the greatest 'f**k you' to society, but the greatest defiance against her own body issues. We are SO here for this…

I think as a plus-sized woman, we are constantly criticised for our bodies…

Clothing in general has been a really transformative experience for me, especially in terms of how to express myself instead of trying to make myself look smaller. That was really a very new idea to me when I started my blog ten years ago. When it comes to lingerie, it’s probably the scariest thing for plus-sized women, as they are criticised for sharing more of their bodies. So, to reclaim that experience and wear sexy lingerie and say, "yes I am confident, yes I feel sexy wearing these pieces," is very empowering. It goes against everything you have been told your whole life about what you should be.

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It was important to me to make sure we kept cellulite in the images…

I didn’t want people to think that in order to feel sexy in underwear or look good in underwear, you have to be a certain kind of plus-sized. I make this clear to my followers all the time, I still struggle with my body and I still have this journey of some good and bad days. For me, I wanted to show back rolls in the images because it helps me to see something I am not comfortable with and say, "yes, I have back rolls, that’s ok! I still can look sexy!"

I would say to everyone out there: "it’s ok to be the size you are…"

We are constantly bombarded with these messages that if you are not thin, you aren’t as valuable, and you are not as worthy. I also encourage young girls, when it comes to social media, to follow women like them. When I was growing up, I didn’t have that. I could only watch TV and movies and I never saw myself reflected. Now, with Instagram, we can seek out women who reflect our body shape. You are able to see those images every day and slowly how you feel about your own body image changes.

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I don’t find it offensive to use the term, ‘plus-sized’ at all, it builds a community experience…

I actually find it helpful as a consumer. The truth of the matter is we are not the same and we don’t have the same options available to us. I think it’s important to create a community around that too as we are not treated the same as thin women. In the modelling industry, it’s a little bit different because I really believe models of all sizes should be able to model for every single brand.

Always remember that how you feel about yourself on a bad day isn’t a permanent state…

Yes, ok it’s a bad day but you won’t feel that way forever. I genuinely do go to Instagram and look at other women who inspire me, who are a similar body shape to me and look at how confident and beautiful they appear. That really does make me feel better about myself.

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Modelling really has given me a moment to take myself out of my head…

You can sometimes not feel good about yourself, even ahead of this shoot, I had gained 20 pounds or so. I was a little nervous, but on the day I had loads of fun and I did end up feeling super confident. I see the images back and I can say, "oh that girl is beautiful." It takes the image of myself outside of my own head. I look at the photos and go, "I look hot!" It really forces me to see myself from someone else’s eyes.